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CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AP) – A joint team of Air Force and Army specialists has safely transported World War II-era ordnance discovered near Hobbs to the Melrose Air Force Range.

The munitions turned up last week at the Western Heritage Museum in Hobbs.

State police technicians were called for an initial evaluation, then officials alerted the Air Force and Army military explosives experts.

Escorted by New Mexico State Police, the joint Air Force-Army team took the ordnance 125 miles to the bombing range near Cannon Air Force Base on Sunday…

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At least 495 skeletons, many with head gunshot wounds, have been unearthed in a mass grave probably dating back to purges under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in the 1930s, Vladivostok authorities said.

At least 3.5 tons of bones were extracted from the site on the outskirts of the Pacific Ocean port of Vladivostok after it was discovered by workmen building a road, City Hall said in a statement.

Millions of Soviet citizens were executed or died in labor camps during Stalin’s rule from the 1920s until his death in 1953, but discoveries of mass graves became less frequent after a surge in finds that followed the 1991 Soviet collapse.

Experts were checking the hypothesis that the bodies were victims of Stalin’s purges.

“Practically all of the skulls have bullet wounds,” said Yaroslav Livanksy, the head of a group of volunteers who helped to excavate the site.

He said money and clothes from the 1930s had been found at the site. A crushed child’s skull was discovered close to a bead bracelet and a small slipper.

Irina Fliege, a senior researcher with human rights group Memorial, which collects information about Stalin-era killings, said she had no doubt that the victims were shot by Stalinist forces.

She said far more bodies were likely to be found as adjacent sites are studied.

“This happens all over the country, it’s impossible to say how often,” Felige said. “All we can do is put up monuments to remember the dead.”…

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A suspected unexploded World War II bomb was found near the Houses of Parliament yesterday.
Police were called in to investigate by two members of the public who found the rusting casing of what appeared to be a shell in Lambeth, a short distance from the Imperial War Museum and about a mile from the Houses of Parliament.

Part of Westminister Bridge Road, between Morley Street and Gerridge Street, was closed following the discovery…

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Russian authorities are preparing to remove a huge arsenal of shells from a sunken German World War II barge off the Baltic coast.

The wreck is just 1.5km (0.9 miles) from the shore, near the town of Baltiysk, and about 20m (66ft) down.
More than 10,000 shells containing explosives are on board, but without detonators, a Russian government official told the BBC.
The removal work could take two years, Maxim Vladimirov said. The operation, involving 18 divers, is scheduled to begin later this month. Mr Vladimirov, a senior official in the Russian Ministry for Emergencies, said the wreck had already been fully surveyed. There was a potential hazard, he said, although the wreck was not in a shipping lane.

Once ashore, the shells will be blown up by engineers at a military site, he said.

On Tuesday a 500kg (1,100lb) World War II bomb blew up in the German town of Goettingen, killing three people who were trying to defuse it…

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An Australian trekker said he has discovered the site of a significant World War II battle in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, complete with the remains of Japanese soldiers right where they fell almost 70 years ago.

Former army Capt. Brian Freeman, an expert on the Kokoda Trail – a 60-mile trek through rugged mountainous country and rainforest of the island – said Monday he was led to the Eora Creek battle site where he found the remains of the soldiers.

The site about half a mile from the village of Eora Creek was believed to be the location of the last major battle that was pivotal in Australia’s campaign against the Japanese in Papau New Guinea.

Although the site was known to local villages, jungles reclaimed it after the battle of Eora Creek. Although locals hunted on the plateau surrounding the site, they avoided the 600-square-meter battle ground because of a belief that spirits of the dead were still present in the “lost battlefield.”…

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Three people have been killed and six injured trying to defuse a World War II bomb in central Germany.

Workers building a sports stadium had earlier unearthed the bomb in the town of Goettingen.

It was not immediately clear why the bomb, reportedly weighing 500kg (1,100lb), had detonated.

Unexploded WWII bombs dropped by Allied planes are frequently found in Germany, though it is unusual for them to explode unexpectedly.

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Salvagers have won permission to recover a World War II Navy dive bomber that has rested on the bottom of a San Diego reservoir for more than six decades.

City and state permits have been obtained for a $125,000 operation to bring up the SB2C-4 Helldiver from Lower Otay Reservoir, said Nelson Manville, a city assistant lakes manager.

The work could begin within a few weeks, with the goal of eventually displaying the plane in the National Naval Aviation Museum in Florida.

“We’re just waiting for the recovery team and museum to give us a date,” Manville told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “This is drinking water, so a lot is going into this because we’re going to have to shut the lake down from the system.”

Divers with Chicago-based salvage firm A&T Recovery examined the plane last year and will have to dredge silt from around the aircraft to see whether it can be recovered.

The Helldiver had taken off from an aircraft carrier and was on a training run when its engine failed and the pilot ditched on May 28, 1945. The pilot and gunner swam to shore, and the Navy decided to leave the bomber at the bottom of the lake.

It was forgotten until March 2009, when a bass fisherman using an electronic fish finder spotted its outline in 85 feet of water.

There are only a half-dozen or less Helldivers left in existence, retired Capt. Robert L. Rasmussen, the museum’s director, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

“No matter how you cut it, they are very rare and we don’t have one in our collection,” he said. “We’ve got nearly everything else that’s significant to Naval aviation.”

He said the submerged Helldiver’s value was not diminished, even though it never saw combat…

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A team of volunteers is restoring a World War II fighter found at the bottom of a Russian lake and brought back to the upstate New York factory where the plane and thousands of others like it were built 65 years ago.

The around-the-world saga of the P-39 Airacobra features a 60-year-old mystery solved, a rare aviation record recovered and a poignant reminder of two of the 3 million…

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On a grey Thursday morning in May, rain-laden clouds were lying low over Buckow, situated on the edges of the Oder river valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Berlin.

When I arrived there, Erwin Kowalke was just donning rubber boots and a green parka, telling me to hurry because rain would make digging a tedious job. The 68-year-old was hastily packing a spade, a yardstick and a metal detector onto his pickup truck.

Five crosses and the caption “Work for Peace” in seven languages were emblazoned on the door of the vehicle – the logo and motto of the “Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge,” the German humanitarian organization where Kowalke works and which is responsible for finding and indentifying missing German soldiers.

On the evening before, Kowalke had gotten a call from a team of ammunitions experts in charge of clearing a route for a Russian gas pipeline to be built in the region.

“They’ve found bones,” he said while we were heading towards Halbe, a town southeast of Berlin. “They say it could be a soldier because there are also pieces of a uniform.”

Later on the journey, he added: “You know, a Russian Field Marshall from the 18th century once said that a war wasn’t over until the last fallen soldiers had been properly buried. I believe there’s much truth in this.”…

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WAILUKU – A World War II-era wreck off South Maui first documented in January has been identified as an SBC-2 Helldiver, ditched in Maalaea Bay on a training flight by a Navy pilot in 1944.

Maritime archaeologist Hans Van Tilburg of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration dived to the site Saturday and confirmed that it was the plane identified by two groups of private divers separately investigating the wreck. He said the U.S. Navy was in the process of making a plaque to mark the site, which is protected under state and federal law, and that officials may also consider installing a mooring nearby.

Van Tilburg said the aircraft was a rare find, not only because the wreck was almost completely preserved, but also because there are very few Helldivers left in existence.

“I’m definitely impressed,” he said. “It’s remarkably intact. I’ve seen a number of aircraft like this, and this one is very intact. That makes it very special.”

When the wreck was first documented in January, it was initially believed to be an SBD Dauntless dive bomber. But B&B Scuba Maui owner Brad Varney, who first reported the site to government authorities after learning about it from a local fisherman, said he realized after visiting the wreck a second time that it was actually a Helldiver.

Today the plane rests on the sandy bottom of Maalaea Bay in about 50 feet of water, encrusted with coral and surrounded by schools of fish.

According to Navy crash records researched by private divers investigating the site, the plane was making a dive-bombing practice attack Aug. 31, 1944, when high-speed maneuvers damaged the tail fin and jammed the rudder controls. With only limited ability to control the aircraft, pilot William E. Dill, a Navy lieutenant, made a water landing, surviving the crash without injuries.

Varney, a self-described “history nut,” said it was exciting to pore over 60-year-old crash reports and other documents as he and colleagues pieced the story together.

“It was pretty cool,” he said. “It wasn’t that hard to figure out, once you had all the records.”

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The family of a Holocaust survivor has been allowed to keep a $10million (£6.6million) ancient gold tablet he received in exchange for cigarettes on the streets of post-war Berlin.

Berlin’s Vorderasiatisches Museum had demanded the 3,200-year-Assyrian artefact be returned because it was looted by Soviet troops.

But a judge on Long Island has ruled that Polish Auschwitz survivor Riven Flamenbaum’s family no longer has to hand over the valuable relic.

Flamenbaum died in 2003 at the age of 92, leaving the tablet to his three children, Israel, Hannah and Helen.

The solid-gold tablet ended up in his hands after it was looted from the museum’s storage by Soviet troops in 1945, and traded for several packets of cigarettes.

The tablet was found in the ruins of an Iraq temple in 1913 by German archeologist Walter Andrae and was shipped to Germany before being displayed at the Vorderasiatisches Museum…

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A LANGLEY Mill couple have spoken of their horror at finding a World War Two grenade in their back garden.
Chris Nixon, 28, of Bailey Brook Drive was digging in his back garden last Wednesday, March 10, when he made the discovery.

He immediately shouted for his partner Ebony, who dialled 999. Police arrived within minutes and residents on the street were immediately evacuated while a bomb squad were called out to investigate.

Chris said: “It was only a few inches down. It was covered in mud and rust – I picked it up and then realised what it was and put it down again and quickly walked off.”

Ebony, 27, said: “I was in the kitchen and Chris was digging in the garden when he called me and said, ‘I don’t want to sound funny, but I think I’ve just found a grenade, come and have a look’, so I strolled up the garden.

“I said I did think it looked like one but it was covered in mud so was
hard to tell.

“I dialled 999 and they told us to get back in the house and to stay there and they would send out an emergency team.

“Ten minutes later the police arrived and called for backup when they realised it was a grenade. They then called the bomb squad.”

The couple, who have five children, were told to turn everything electrical off before evacuating the house.

All of their immediate neighbours, along with residents of Horsley Crescent whose houses backed on to their back garden were also evacuated, or told to stay away from their windows in case of an explosion.

“The neighbours were concerned. They didn’t know what was going on,” said Ebony.

After recovering the grenade, police took it away.

Luckily, it wasn’t live, but had it been there was a chance it could have exploded because it had been disturbed.

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Berlin’s Tegel Airport was closed for about two hours on Wednesday after an unexploded World War Two bomb was found and defused, an airport spokesman said.

The 500-lb British bomb was defused by explosives experts and flights resumed after 8 p.m., police said. About 20 incoming flights were re-routed to Berlin Schoenefeld airport and 10 outward-bound flights were postponed.

Passengers were evacuated from one of the airport’s terminals, the spokesman said.

The bomb was discovered during construction work at the airport, which was built after World War Two.

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The Amber Room of the Tsars – one of the greatest missing treasures of WW2 that was looted by the Nazis during their invasion of the Soviet Union – may have been found.

A Russian treasure hunter is currently excavating in the enclave of Kaliningrad where he has discovered a World War II era bunker that the local German high command used in the battle for the city in 1945.

If Sergei Trifonov is correct then he has solved one of the greatest riddles left over from the war – and will make himself into a multi-millionaire. He anticipates that he will break into the bunker by the end of the month to find the treasure.

Crafted entirely out of amber, gold and precious stones, the room made of numerous panels was a masterpiece of baroque art and widely regarded as the world’s most important art treasure.

When its 565 candles were lit the Amber Room was said to ‘glow a fiery gold’. It is estimated to be worth around £150million, but many consider it priceless.

It was presented to Peter the Great in 1716 by the King of Prussia.

Later, Catherine the Great commissioned a new generation of craftsmen to embellish the room and moved it from the Winter Palace in St Petersburg to her new summer abode in Tsarskoye Selo, outside the city…

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Loggers in coastal Oregon have found the wreckage of a World War II-era Navy aircraft that investigators believe may have human remains inside.

Investigators reported seeing a wing, tail section, landing gear and other mangled debris spread out over 200 yards in a heavily wooded area in Tillamook County in northwestern Oregon.

Oregon State Police bomb technicians checked the site Wednesday afternoon and found no obvious signs of unexploded ordnance.

The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, a carrier-based dive bomber used in World War II, was discovered March 18 by a logging company working in the area.

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